explain the feelings from which it springs."

Pisistratus.--"Are the letters gone?"

Vivian.--"Yes."

Pisistratus.--"And you would not show them to me!"

Vivian.--"Do not speak so reproachfully. I promised your father to pour
out my whole heart to him, whenever it was troubled and at strife. I
promise you now that I will go by his advice."

Pisistratus (disconsolately).--"What is there in this military life for
which you yearn that can yield you more food for healthful excitement
and stirring adventure than your present pursuits afford?"

Vivian.--"Distinction! You do not see the difference between us. You
have but a fortune to make,--I have a name to redeem; you look calmly on
to the future,--I have a dark blot to erase from the past."

Pisistratus (soothingly).--"It is erased. Five years of no weak
bewailings, but of manly reform, steadfast industry, conduct so
blameless that even Guy (whom I look upon as the incarnation of blunt
English honesty) half doubts whether you are 'cute enough for 'a
station;' a character already so high that I long for the hour when you
will again take your father's spotless name, and give me the pride to
own our kinship to the world,--all this surely redeems the errors
arising from an uneducated childhood and a wandering youth."

Vivian (leaning over his horse, and putting his hand on my shoulder).--